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Average score 9.29 out of 10, based on 7552 reviews7552.

Wise Owl - computer training without the attitude

Here are some of the things which most irritate us, and how we avoid them.

We've included this table to give a flavour of what Wise Owl do, and more
importantly how we do it.

Irritant

How we avoid it

Hassle

If you've made an enquiry, we assume that you're adult enough to follow it up yourself if interested. So you won't get streams of emails or phone calls asking you if you've made a decision yet. Please don't misinterpret this as lack of interest - we're just treating you as we like to be treated ourselves.

Lack of ethics

Not many companies are unambiguously evil, but tobacco companies must come
close. We do not accept work from tobacco companies (not an empty promise: we've
turned down enquiries several times).

Sales people

One of the things we dread about enquiring about any service is getting a pushy salesperson, who'll do anything to get commission (in
Borat in Kazakhstan this memorably included negotiating the number of gypsies that a particular car could kill at different speeds). We don't employ sales staff, and don't offer commission - if you ring us you'll get a Wise Owl doing his or her best to give you honest advice.

Aggressive invoicing

You know the scenario - you book a service or buy something, and the invoice arrives by return of post. We fervently believe that you shouldn't have to pay an invoice until after you've received our training - then you've got a chance to dispute payment if you're not happy. Invoicing in advance for goods or services not received is just really bad manners.

Automated phone lines

When you call Wise Owl, you'll get a human at the other end of the line between
9 am and 4.30 pm about 99.9% of the time (in the rare event that all 3 of our
lines are busy, you'll get an answering machine). You won't get an automated
message system; we don't have one.

Badly trained sales staff

There's a good reason you won't ever speak to one of these when you call or
email: we don't have any. It's almost always the case that the person
answering the phone will be a trainer themselves, and will be instantly able to
answer your query. Some people get a bit taken aback by this!

Waste

We were fanatically recycling waste long before it became fashionable. We take all our cardboard and plastic to
HWP in Audenshaw (they are open to the public), and our paper, plastic bottles, tins and cans to the local Tesco. We don't have company cars as a policy, just one shared pool car (Billy the Honda). All of our training centres are deliberately in city centres, to encourage people attending to travel by public transport.

We don't, however, have a long printed and bound environmental policy - why waste paper?

Junk mail

Whether it arrives by email or by post, junk email is the scourge of modern life. We send out 2-3 email newsletters each year, when we have time. If someone asks to be removed from our mailing list, we do it immediately, acknowledge by email and then never send that person general emails again. Oh, and we would never, ever, ever give out your details to anyone else. Ever.